Heat 103, Wizards 98: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh didn’t play, but Ray Allen stepped up by matching a season-high 23 points, which he last accomplished Nov. 3. Fellow-old-role-player Rashard Lewis also scored a season high, finishing with 17 points. Just in case the absence of three of the game’s top players wasn’t enough, Miami’s style shook up the game. The Heat attempted 41 3-pointers (17 makes) and turned the ball over 22 times. — Dan Feldman

Nuggets 96, Spurs 86: The first quarter of this game was just flat out ugly. Both teams made a few defensive plays, but mostly there were just a lot of missed shots — Denver hit 5-of-23 (21.7 percent) in the first, which had them 8 points back of San Antonio 19-11. Corey Brewer and Wilson Chandler combined 4-13.

However, the Spurs never pulled away, in part because they started off shoting 0-7 from three. To be fair, San Antonio was without Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili. Eventually the Nuggets got hot — Chandler shot 9-of-15 the rest of the way, Brewer 10-of-18 and they finished with 29 and 28 points respectively. The game remained tight until a 23-3 run at the end of the third into the start of the fourth and that was it — playing shorthanded against the deepest team in the league finally caught up to the Spurs and it was the Nuggets bench that led the run.

With the win, Denver moves a full game up on Memphis in the race for the three seed in the West. The loss sends the Spurs into a tie with Oklahoma City for the best record in the West (both are 57-21), but OKC has the tiebreak as they will finish with a better record in conference. — Kurt Helin

Hawks 124, 76ers 101: After losing three straight – including a loss to this same Philadelphia team – Atlanta got easy shots and made them. The Hawks, who shot 59 percent on 2-pointers and 94 percent on free throws, are now tied with the Bulls for the No. 5 seed in the East. The 76ers – who’ve lost their last three games by 19, 21 and now 23 – might be done competing for the season, if not for their next three games being against teams that are similarly ready for this season to end: Washington, Cleveland and Detroit. — Dan Feldman

Magic 113, Bucks 103: The youngsters – Nikola Vucevic (30 points, 20 rebounds, five assists), Tobias Harris (30 points, 19 rebounds, five assists) and John Henson (17 points, 25 rebounds, seven blocks) – had ridiculous all-around games. That’s fine and dandy for the Magic, who are looking for a few positives at the end of a rebuilding season. But the Bucks should be gearing up for a first-round matchup with the Heat, not just showcasing Henson or worrying about seller’s remorse with Harris. That might be difficult, though, considering Brandon Jennings and Larry Sanders left the game with injuries. — Dan Feldman

Pistons 111, Cavaliers 104: If you were to start a team with a player who won’t make the playoffs this season, whom would you take? Two contenders played in this game: Andre Drummond (career-high 29 points and 11 rebounds) and Kyrie Irving (27 points and nine assists). Cleveland intentionally fouled Drummond late, but he made 8-of-14 free throws during that time to help hold off the Cavaliers, who gained valuable lottery positioning with a loss to the team just ahead of them in the standings. — Dan Feldman

Nets 101, Celtics 93: Boston settled for the jump shot and it failed them — Jeff Green was 4-of-17 on the night, Jason Terry 1-7, and the Celtics didn’t get their first free throw until more than three minutes had gone by in the second half. The Boston offense struggles unless role players like Green light it up (he is the bellwether for their offense) and he was off.

Deron Williams was on — he had 29 points and 12 assists. D-Will picked up 10 of those points in the fourth quarter to help stave off some Celtics pushes. Joe Johnsn added 20, Brook Lopez 21 for the Nets. — Kurt Helin

Clippers 111, Timberwolves 95: This is what the Clippers do — they destroy the teams they should beat. Los Angeles also did what coaches love to see in that they closed out quarters well — they went on a 16-6 run to close out the second quarter and a 19-6 one to close out the third and blow the game wide open. The Clippers were balanced with six players in double figures scoring led by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin with 19 points each. And of course, Griffin had a few monster dunks. — Kurt Helin

Kings 121, Hornets 110: There haven’t been a lot of laughers for the Kings this season, but they got one Wednesday night — Sacramento started to pull away with a 14-2 run midway through the first quarter and they led by as many as 30. John Salmons had 22 points, 12 of those in the third quarter to make sure the Kings kept their lead. Jason Thompson and Marcus Thornton each added 20. — Kurt Helin

Suns 102, Mavericks 91: Dallas essentially no-showed for this game, and allowed a Phoenix team that isn’t exactly known for its offense to put up 61 first half points on the Mavs’ home floor. As a result, Dallas was officially eliminated from the playoffs, and will miss the postseason for the fist time since 2000. Not that the hopes were all that high for Dallas entering this one; the team has known since losing to the Lakers in Los Angeles on April 2 that it would take a not-so-small miracle for the team to get in, considering the records of both Utah and L.A. who are firmly ahead of the Mavericks in the standings.

Can the Bulls slip to 6 seed please? The Pacers Bulls matchup would be a lot more fun and then they’d have a chance (though slim) to make it to conference finals whereas the hawks and nets can just slug it out and no one will care because they’ll get rolled second round vs heat

I don’t know, I don’t love our chances against Indy in the first round without Rose. I think Brooklyn would be a better matchup and then we can see if we can at least put a bump in the Heat’s march to the finals.

I see where you are coming from I just don’t know if you want to play a rested Heat team second round after an easy sweep of the Bucks with a DRose on a minutes cap OR try your luck against a similarly built team (defence first) and play the Heat after you’ve hit a roll with Rose coming back

dtownpayne - Apr 11, 2013 at 11:37 AM

Nuggets/Spurs portion of the recap: ‘To be fair, San Antonio was without Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili.’

Yeah Kurt, because the Nuggets weren’t short handed without Ty Lawson or Danilo Gallinari. Give credit where credit is do, both teams were on 3 days rest, both teams missing two key players.

The Nuggets are a team to fear in the postseason, don’t care if you’re the Spurs, Thunder or Heat. Not saying they’d beat any or all of those three but if they face any of them (the Heat being the biggest long shot to play because it would be in the Finals), you know all 3 would be scared to death to play this team. They are after-all 3-1 against OKC and gave the Spurs a huge scare with a completely unhealthy Ty Lawson in their house the last time we played them before we beat them last night.

This is a team that’s lost 3 games since the beginning of January and is a league best 36-3 at home, give respect where it’s due instead of making excuses for a team you obviously like being beat by a solid team, just sayin…

I don’t proofread his articles, the typos and errors jump out. I’m hardly a grammar king, but it’s not my job.

mat9844 - Apr 11, 2013 at 12:47 PM

Blake’s monster dunks are always impressive; what I really love is what he’s done with the rest of his game this year. His outside shots, free throws, rebounds, assists & steals are all vastly improved from last year. Keeps getting better.